


A Friend In Need

by bettername2come



Series: Long Distance Phone Calls to Central City [12]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Episode: s05e23 Lian Yu, Gen, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 10:35:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11011713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettername2come/pseuds/bettername2come
Summary: Set post Arrow 5x23, this fic takes the most logical solution to the Arrow cliffhanger: Lyla calls Cisco when Diggle goes missing. Team Flash does, after all, owe her one.





	A Friend In Need

**Author's Note:**

> This makes three episodes out of the last eight in which I yell at Team Arrow to call Cisco for help. Probably will be proven wrong in season 6, but, oh well.

Four days after Barry walked into the Speed Force, things are just starting to hurt a little bit less for Cisco. He’s just starting to get used to the empty lab. To stop expecting that rush of wind tangling his hair when Barry sprints in. To open the fridge without expecting Caitlin to yell at him for taking her last pizza pocket. To stop imagining the sound of a drumbeat he’ll never hear again.

Cisco’s in STAR Labs, tinkering with an update to Wally’s suit when the phone rings. He sees Lyla’s name on the display and knows it’s nothing good. She never calls with good news.

“Johnny’s missing,” she says without preamble. “He and Felicity were taken while leaving Star City, and now Oliver’s not answering my calls.”

“What do you need me to do?” Cisco asked.

“Meet me at my apartment. Now,” Lyla commands. She rattles off the address and hangs up without another word.

Cisco teleports there, right into her living room and he’s barely gotten his feet on the ground when a confused, adorable two-and-half-year-old boy is placed in his arms.

“You need something John’s connected to, right?” Lyla nods at her son. “John Junior. It doesn’t get more connected than that.”

Cisco’s about to tell her that it doesn’t work like that, that that’s just going to get him JJ’s future instead, but he sees the look in Lyla’s eyes, worry and determination, and decides that maybe he shouldn’t argue with the head of ARGUS, at least not without trying her method first. He shifts the sleepy toddler in his arms and focuses on Diggle. It only takes a second for the blue tinted vision to shift into focus. Diggle and Felicity and a few assorted familiar and unfamiliar faces, running through the trees, water visible in the distance. Cisco only glimpses them for a moment before thick black smoke fills the vision along with the crackle of dozens if not hundreds of explosions.

“They’re on Lian Yu,” Cisco says. “At least I think it was Lian Yu. And it’s gonna explode.” He passes the child back to his mother.

“What’s gonna explode?”

“Lian Yu. The entire island went up in smoke. I have to go.”

“I’m coming with you.”

Cisco shakes his head. “No. There’s nothing you can do to help. I’ve got to get them out of there now, and if this goes south, Digg would want one of you to be with your son.”

Lyla takes a deep breath as she nods, clutching her son tighter.

“I’ll bring him home,” Cisco says. He throws open a breach and jumps through, straight into the path of the retreating heroes.

“Cisco?!” Felicity yells in shock as the crowd skids to a stop.

“You gotta get out of here!” Cisco yells back. “This place is about to blow.”

“We know,” Diggle said. “Why do you think we’re running?”

Cisco reopens a breach, connecting them to STAR Labs rather than Lyla’s living room since he’s not entirely sure who some of these people are and _holy crap, is that friggin’ Deathstroke?_ Because Cisco really hadn’t been planning on saving someone who once threatened to kill him. He shakes off the thought, deciding he can always throw the swordsman into a cell at STAR Labs once they get back. He waves them through the breach and jumps in after them, hearing the first of the explosions just as the breach closes behind him and he arrives in the relative safety of STAR Labs. His feet have barely hit the floor when a brunette with wide, terrified eyes grips his jacket.

“William! My son, he’s still back there!” the hysterical woman yells.

Cisco’s hoping the glasses hide the unheroic terror in his eyes. “There’s a kid on that island death trap?! Where?”

“I don’t know,” she replies. “That man took him.”

“Chase disappeared. Oliver went looking for him and William,” Felicity says.

Cisco places his hands on the woman’s. The parent-child bond had been enough to find Diggle. He’s hoping it will work for this woman’s son. He’s relieved to get an image of the child on a boat, held tight in Oliver’s arms.

“He’s alive,” Cisco says. “I’ll get him.” He throws the breach back open and jumps through, landing on shaky legs as his sudden weight jostles the boat beneath him.

Oliver has his left arm wrapped around the boy and his right arm is over his shoulder, plucking an arrow from his quiver before he recognizes the person in front of him as friend not foe. “C-Vibe?” Oliver asks, and how he manages to remember to keep secret identities despite the intense situation, Cisco will never know. Cisco glances back over his shoulder to see the island covered in black smoke. When he turns back around and sees Oliver’s blue eyes shining with tears, he realizes that Oliver already thinks the worst, and given his life, who can really blame him?

 “Lyla called me,” Cisco explains. “She said Diggle was missing.” And crap, he should probably be using codenames too, but William is clearly too terrified to pay attention to what Cisco’s saying. “They’re alive. I got them in time. They’re in Central City.”

Oliver gives a sigh of relief that’s almost a laugh and wraps his right arm around the boy, and suddenly his relationship to the kid becomes clear to Cisco.

“You work with The Flash,” the boy – William – whispers to Cisco.

Cisco smiles, putting on his best kid-friendly voice. “Yeah, I do. But today I’m working with the Green Arrow. And I just met your mom, and she is really worried about you. So let’s get you and your – let’s get you two back to her okay?”

William nods. “Okay,” he says, loosening his grip from Oliver a little but staying close to the man’s side.

Cisco throws open the breach. “We’ll go on three, okay? One, two, three.” They jump through the breach, landing back in the Cortex of STAR Labs.

“William!”

“Mom!” The boy untangles himself from Oliver and runs straight for his mother, while Team Arrow moves forward to greet Oliver.

“Am I glad I wasn’t able to kill you,” Slade says to Cisco with a clap on the shoulder.

“Aw, you do remember me. I’m touched,” Cisco replies. He turns to Oliver. “Can I lock him up now?”

“Sorry,” Oliver answers. “A deal’s a deal.” He reaches out to shake Slade’s hand and is met with a still strong, but no longer vicelike grip.

“See you around, kid,” he says and walks out the doors of STAR Labs.

Felicity drifts closer to Oliver, leaning into the comforting expanse of his chest and for a moment, lets the awkwardness slip away. “I’m all for redemption, but just letting Slade Wilson go seems wrong.”

“Pretty sure ARGUS is going to agree with that one too,” Diggle says.

“Speaking of, I need to get you home,” Cisco says. “I for one would like to stay on the good side of the leader of a shady government organization with meta-proof weaponry.” He teleports out with Digg and quickly comes back.

“Does The Flash work here too?” William asks, recovering enough to inquire about his second favorite hero.

Cisco forces a smile, but can’t hold it. “Yeah, he does. But he’s, um, he’s not here right now.”

Oliver gives him a quizzical look over the top of Felicity’s head, but Cisco just shakes his head. They’ll talk later. For now, for just one moment, he wants to focus on the good. Team Arrow lives to fight another day.

And yeah, it feels good to be the hero.


End file.
